Sentence ‘too lenient’ for rogue Sheffield postman

Polly Rippon

A nurse from Sheffield had to pay £400 for a minor motoring offence which should have cost her a quarter of that sum - because her final warning letter was not delivered by rogue postman Spencer Ballinger.

The 34-year-old was even visited by a bailiff who clamped her car and said he would seize it if she failed to pay up.

The mum received a fine through the post after mistakenly driving through a bus gate in the Wicker, Sheffield.

But she forgot to pay the £60 fine and £50 administration charge after a family bereavement, and then her final warning letter - marked urgent - was not delivered by Ballinger.

Yesterday he was handed a 12-month community order by Sheffield magistrates after he admitted failing to deliver 42,000 letters.

Among them was the nurse’s final warning letter.

The woman, who does not want to be named, told The Star afterwards his sentence seemed ‘lenient’.

“If I’d received my letter it would have reminded me about the fine and I’d have paid it straight away,” she said.

“I ended up paying £400 instead of the £110 it would have cost originally.

“It would also have saved me the shame and embarrassment of a bailiff turning up on my doorstep.

“In the end we had to use our savings, and as a result we didn’t go away on holiday that year.

“What was even worse was the fact I could see the bailiff didn’t believe me when I told him I’d not had the final warning letter, and nor did my husband. It was my pride that was hurt more than anything else.”

The woman, from Wincobank, added: “The knock-on effects of his actions have been massive for other people.

“He must have known how important it was that the post was delivered.”